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Schools: Standards

Answer

The department’s School Complaints Compliance Unit (SCCU) considers how maintained schools and academies handle complaints on behalf of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. For maintained schools, SCCU considers whether a school has dealt with a complaint in line with education legislation and any relevant statutory policies. If they find a maintained school has not acted reasonably under education law, and identify a practical action to take, they can instruct the school accordingly. These actions are usually a technical or procedural change in a school’s policy, to ensure they carry out their duties in line with education legislation. If the school does not make the required changes, sections 496 and 497 of the Education Act 1996 allow my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education to intervene and issue a direction to the school.

The department does not hold data in relation to complaints about maintained schools prior to 2013. The table below shows the number of in scope complaints received by the SCCU about maintained schools. From 2013 to 31 August 2023, the SCCU did not record if complaints were from parents, but from 1 September 2023 onwards this has been recorded. No directions have been issued in relation to a complaint about a maintained school.

Calendar year	Number of in-scope maintained school complaints	Number of complaints partially upheld/upheld*
2013	12	6
2014	209	81
2015	273	44
2016	302	28
2017	340	23
2018	447	23
2019	354	35
2020	268	15
2021	259	20
2022	343	39
1 January to 31 August 2023	192	2
1 September to 31 December 2023	91	7
2024	330	53
Total	3420	376

*Outcome data split under sections 496 and 497 is not recorded.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL9135

Session

2024-26

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Appeals Local government Parents Standards Schools

Legislation

Education Act 1996

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk